Recently, I was speaking with someone about a painter with whom we are both familiar and she mentioned how impressed she was when the artist's painting sold for $1000 at an art gallery. She should be impressed because that's a big deal, right?
Then I thought about my own week, which isn't the first time (I'm reminded of this every time someone is impressed for how much a single painting sells). I made significantly more than $1000 in only about 10 total hours of drawing time, doing caricatures, and all I used was a black marker. A single, black, Copic marker on a white sheet of paper. And what I did wasn't just a one-time thing. This happens nearly every week and I've been doing so for many years.
Don't get me wrong. This isn't a comparison of talent because the painter we're talking about is most certainly capable and skilled in ways that I am not. However, this is a comparison of applications.
Time Between Sales
An oil painter might spend days, or weeks, on a single piece. When it sells, it sells once. One piece, one paycheck and usually the fine artist doesn't receive the payment until the time of delivery. On the other hand, a caricature artist gets paid in advance. I, for one, don't start drawing until the check is in my hands. Also, a caricature artist at an event works differently because in those same hours, I might draw dozens of people whereas an oil painting artist creates value in a single finished piece. The cartoonist creates value through volume and interaction which is the same foundation, but the model differs.
Paying for an Experience
A painting is a product and what I do at events is something else entirely. Of course, it’s a product, but it’s also entertainment. It’s a moment as a crowd gathers, someone laughs, a reaction, and memories are being made in real time. People don’t just walk away with a drawing. Rather, they walk away remembering what it felt like to be drawn and that experience has value which changes how and why people pay.
In traditional art circles, speed is often seen as a shortcut. It's something that sacrifices quality, but in my world, pace is a skill. The efficiency at which I can deliver a strong likeness, then the more people I can serve and the more people I serve, then the more value I create in a limited window of time. Swiftness isn’t cutting corners but t’s understanding what matters most and delivering it efficiently.
When a painter finishes a piece, the next step is to find a buyer and that can take time. It depends on taste, timing, exposure, and sometimes luck. When I show up to an event, the buyer is already there, the budget is already set, I've already been paid and the opportunity is immediate. My job isn’t to search for value but to capture it quickly, consistently, and professionally.
The fine artist in our earlier discussion certainly deserves that $1,000 because it likely took time, patience, and real skill to create. What I do requires those same ingredients but applied in a completely different way in which I trade detail for promptness, isolation for interaction, and the client pays not for one finished work of art but a block of my time in which I deliver value. Neither approach is better, but they are not the same.
Just Start. Get Good Later.
Artists who are trying to get better need a mind shift by not asking, “How good am I?” Alternatively, they should be asking, “How am I using what I’ve got?”, because two artists with the same level of ability can end up with completely different incomes, not because of talent, but because of how they apply it.
Caricature, especially in a live event setting, has a built-in advantage which is speedy work. I serve many people in a short time when I provide entertainment, not just a product. I operate in environments where money is already spent and that combination creates something coveted: a repeatable, reliable way to earn.
Artists don’t get paid for talent alone. They also get paid for how they deliver value.